Regional Income Differences in Ghana: The Importance of Socio-Demographic and Ethnicity

Type Journal Article - Research on Humanities and Social Sciences
Title Regional Income Differences in Ghana: The Importance of Socio-Demographic and Ethnicity
Author(s)
Volume 4
Issue 17
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Page numbers 103-111
URL http://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/RHSS/article/view/14864
Abstract
Income differences have gained increased attention among policy makers and economists in Ghana and around
the world. Several factors affect income differences in and across different geographical levels in the Country.
The Paper therefore presents a comparative analysis of regional income differences in Ghana with regional panel
data for 1960, 1970, 1984 and 2000. The results show a relationship between socio-demographic factors and
regional income differences. It was identified that ethnicity and religion have different impacts on regional
income; Christians have positive effect on regional income but not Muslims and Akans. Again, high population
density in a region reduces the mean regional income; similarly, high concentration of population over 60years
reduces the average regional income. Evidence from the results empirically emphasize that, regions with high
share of aged population, Akans, Muslims and high population density have low regional income compared with
regions with high share of Christians and low share of Akans.

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